Immigration-related public health threats not clear

FILE - This June 25, 2014, file photo shows a group of immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are stopped in Granjeno, Texas. Even as they grapple with an immigration crisis at the border, White House officials are making plans to act before November's mid-term elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants in this country illegally, allowing them to stay in the United States without threat of deportation, according to advocates and lawmakers in touch with the administration. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

A group of immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally are loaded onto a van June 25 in Granjeno. Whether immigrants pose a threat to public health remains unclear.

FILE - In this June 18, 2014, file photo, detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection, processing facility in Brownsville,Texas. Many of the immigrants recently flooding the nation's southern border say they're fleeing violent gangs in Central America. These gangs were a byproduct of U.S. immigration and Cold War policies, specifically growing from the increase in deportations in the 1990s. With weak dysfunctional governments at home, U.S. street gang culture easily took hold and flourished in these countries. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool, File)

They travel from poverty-stricken countries plagued by drug wars south of the United States border.

As their population grows in Texas, concerns of diseases they might bring with them grow too.

A-J Media attempted to contact several government immigration and health agencies by phone and email for interviews. The officials who responded chose to respond only by email to this question: Do immigrants pose a threat to public health?

The answer to that remains unclear; the responses to the A-J dealt mostly with policy and procedure.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes seriously the health, safety and welfare of detainees in our custody,” wrote Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the ICE central region office in Dallas, in an email to A-J Media.

General screenings

As children and adults step in to temporary housing facilities accommodating the steadily rising number of immigrants, they undergo health screenings, wrote Doug Mosier, press officer for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for the Texas West and New Mexico region, in an email to A-J Media.

“I can tell you from a CPB perspective that we routinely conduct public health screenings on all incoming detainees to screen for any symptoms of illnesses and contagious disease of possible public concerns,” he wrote. “CBP personnel have some knowledge and training in illness recognition, but do not physically examine or diagnose illnesses.”

The screenings include chest X-rays or skin tests for tuberculosis, Rusnok wrote.

An earlier A-J Media story that looked at a facility in Artesia, New Mexico, housing immigrants reported that 89 of the more than 600 immigrants tested positive for tuberculosis in the skin test. However, that only shows TB is present in the detainees’ country of origin. No TB had been reported in immigrants in Artesia.

Standards and guidelines by the American Correction Association, National Commission on Correction Health Care and ICE National Detention Standards for health are followed, Rusnok wrote.

The websites for each organization indicate correctional officials can receive certification through training to recognize symptoms of more common communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.

“Immediate attention is provided to detainees who present a danger of an imminent risk to themselves or others, such as those with infectious diseases, uncontrolled mental health disorders or conditions that would deteriorate if not seen immediately by medical personnel,” Rusnok wrote.

CBP and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have collaborated to develop policies, procedures and protocols to provide additional care for immigrants who need it, Mosier wrote.

Messages left for CDC officials were not returned.

Unaccompanied children

Children from Central and South America generally participate in vaccination programs, similar to those offered in the U.S., wrote Kenneth Wolfe, deputy director of the Office of Public Affairs Administration for Children and Families with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in an email to A-J Media.

During the check-in process, children go through well-child exams and receive vaccines to shield against communicable diseases, he wrote.

“When children arrive at U.S. border stations, they are given a medical screening and, if needed, medical treatment,” he wrote. “When children come into the Department of Health and Human Services program, they are given a well-child exam and given all needed childhood vaccinations to protect against communicable diseases. They are also screened for tuberculosis and receive a mental health exam.”

When children are determined to have certain communicable diseases, the federal government pays to get necessary health care, he wrote.

“If it is determined that children have certain communicable diseases or have been exposed to such communicable diseases, they are placed in a program or facility that has the capacity to quarantine,” he wrote. “Children with serious health conditions are treated at local hospitals. The cost of this care is fully paid by the federal government.”

Child detainees are required to have access to food, shelter and medical care until they can be placed within safe family or sponsor settings, Wolfe wrote.

The safe destinations are located all throughout the U.S., including Texas, Wolfe wrote.

“HHS seeks to work closely with the states to respond to this humanitarian situation,” he wrote. “HHS is engaging with state officials to address concerns they may have about the care or impact of unaccompanied children in their states, while making sure the children are treated humanely and consistent with the law as they go through immigration court proceedings that will determine whether they will be removed and repatriated, or qualify for some form of relief.”

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Mainly because you've had every nativist catering right wing news source play to the fears and resentments of their audience with misinformation. Misinformation like those that "accuse[s] the border-crossers of harboring vaccine-preventable diseases such as “mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria.”

From a previous comment.

"The Central American kids arriving in Texas are likely to be better-vaccinated than children in Texas."

"Before demonizing undocumented children, we should look at the facts: The vast majority of Central Americans are vaccinated against all these diseases. Governments concerned about health, and good parents investing in their kids, have made Central American kids better-vaccinated than Texan kids. We fear them not because they are actually sick, but because of powerful anti-immigration narratives that link foreigners to disease.

Consider, for example, Guatemala. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Guatemalan kids are more likely than Texans to be immunized for most infectious diseases. Guatemala has universal health care. Vaccines are 100 percent funded by the government.

By comparison, one in six kids in Texas is uninsured, and even insured families often must pay for vaccination. That means that many Texas kids fall behind on vaccinations, or miss them altogether when their family can’t afford a doctor’s visit. Other families refuse vaccination."

"Furthermore, it’s absurd to claim that the U.S. has eradicated measles while Central America has not. In fact, measles outbreaks have resurged in some American cities. By contrast, according to the World Health Organization, neither Guatemala nor Honduras has had a reported case of measles since 1990."

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Jonathan Swift "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Groucho Marx

Stands to reason that Texas' vaccination rates would be higher than CA vaccination rates if Perry had implemented the Medicaid Expansion. Leading the nation in the highest rate of uninsured, including children, is nothing to brag about, it is a disgrace.

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Jonathan Swift "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Groucho Marx

In 1906, 25,000 people in the U.S. died from complications of typhoid fever. There is presently a TYPHOID FEVER OUTBREAK IN GUATEMALA. During one outbreak, Typhoid Mary infected 1,300 people as a cook in New York. Many survivors of typhoid fever become carriers as in the infamous case of Typhoid Mary. If left untreated, a carrier is infectious for 3 years, 1 year with treatment or removal of gall bladder[the typhus organism proliferates in the gall bladder]. Thanks to Obama's information blackout, how many Typhoid Marias and Typhoid Joses are being housed in detention centers all over the U.S. that we don't know about?... and how many have been released into the population of the U.S. without diagnosis or treatment? We will not know until it hits pandemic levels as it did at the turn of the 20th century in this country. Many of the children in these centers have fevers and have had to be hospitalized. The symptoms are fever, headache, stomach pain, lethargy, diarrhea, nausea/ vomiting and when fatal, the diseased person suffers from gastrointestinal hemmorhaging and intestinal perforation as the disease attacks the tissues or peritonitis[massive infection] sets in leading to confusion, coma and death.
As we speak, a psuedomona bacteria has caused panic in several Guatemalan cities as demonstrated in pics of 300 people a day rushing to clinics and hospitals with symptoms of that disease. Why is our U.S. media silent about these diseases and publishing b.s. like that posted above? What are they trying to hide from the masses? We need to shut the border and prevent these illegal aliens/Guatemalans and others who may be infectious from entering this country...or we will be suffering the consequences for decades to come. Look at the pictures in these newspaper stories published recently, if you can't read Spanish...they are very telling.

@jeffreee...the claim that 3rd world children are better vaccinated is preposterous. Less than a month ago many hospitals in Guatemala had to shut down due to a lack of basic hospital supplies/ancillary, etc. If you believe that myth, you and lalaland need to have you head examined.

Ask someone who spouts off about typhoid and pandemic levels TODAY to provide a medical link, cant do it. They will blather on about the Texas economy to divert away from the fact that Texas children have a lower vaccination rate than do Central American children. Don't know what that is about other than to say that Texas ranks 9th highest in poverty nationally and we have the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. California has the 8th largest economy in the world and they have higher vaccination rates and a lower poverty ranking than Texas. AND they have a higher rate of insured children than Texas.

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Jonathan Swift "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Groucho Marx

Look, if our own AG and GOP candidate for governor wants to compare Texas to a third world country, maybe he should think about changing the GOP platform and shift some of the 19 billion a year in corporate welfare to public health.

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Jonathan Swift "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Groucho Marx

Apparently, if you are black, female, and poor in Texas, you got an equal or better shot at having a premature birth than in the worst third world countries having reliable data. Premature births are problematic and increase health care and educational costs for all Texans, not to mention the suffering, and death of infants which may be born alive, or may be spontaneously aborted or still born.

Oh, so you found a glaring problem or two with the state and that's what makes Texas third-world.

Hold on, give me a moment, I'm running to Market Street.

.............

Okay, I'm back. They have every form of meat and produce available for sale there. I also checked to see if customers are vetted for GOP credentials before they can buy, just like how in North Korea, people who aren't state party members aren't allowed in grocery stores like this, period. But I could feel the classist hatred when the cashier asked for my ID when I was purchasing my daily intake of six bottles of Thunderbird fortified wine. It was then that I felt the yoke of true oppression and I did not like it one bit. That and she shorted me three cents in change which means I'm going to have to dig up more change from my neighbor's couch for tomorrow's Thunderbird run. (This annoys him, so that means he's some kind of petty regional warlord or something.)

Okay, running back outside again. Brb.

.......

Back. I went to see if there were any political concentration camps or genocide occurring around Lubbock. I didn't find anything like that, but I did run across some kid trying to fry ants with a magnifying glass. I told him that's mean and he should stop. I'm literally Che Guevara (literally.)

Off to go check on the healthcare side of things.

.....

I'm back! You guys were right. There's no healthcare here accessible to everyone regardless of their means. Well, except for all those clinics all around Lubbock that provide healthcare regardless of your income (they even have this posted around their clinics informing patients of this) and I went around to each ER for the big hospitals around here and asked if they refuse anyone who can't immediately cough up a few grand and they just looked at me like I was from Ganymede. So basically yeah, healthcare doesn't exist here in Lubbock. At all. For anyone.

So, I stand corrected. We really do live in a third world warzone. I kind of had my doubts, but these latest water restrictions finally woke me up to the reality. Now my magnolias are wilting. This... this is the harsh reality of oppression.

"Apparently, if you are black, female, and poor in Texas, you got an equal or better shot at having a premature birth than in the worst [THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES HAVING RELIABLE DATA]."

You proved a point...The data is skewed due to the fact that in third world countries, private hospitals, clinics, etc. and Drs do not have to report to public health agencies or the govt. They are not bound by laws or by the government to make anything available to the public. Many illnesses, deaths, etc. are never reported. Immunizations or the lack of and even epidemics are at the bottom of the list of reportable data.

So how can you make those claims? The data is not reliable for the reasons I stated above.

Just because you have access to all of this and you have transportation available does not mean that everybody is as wealthy and as well off as you.

I'm very well aware of how good I have it. This is exactly why I don't perpetually complain about my petty first world problems like the rest of the folks in this thread of comments.

Not everyone drinks like you either.

nowhereland, go buy a bottle of Thunderbird wine. Go ahead, it's only a few bucks (which should tell you intended demographic for this product. Yes, liquor companies are that insidious.) Note the alcohol content of it and for the love of God, don't take a drink of it. Just take a whiff. Then, reconsider if I was making a joke of drinking six bottles a day of that back there or not.

Oh, is that right, AG? Really, where do you think WHO came up with their numbers given that many of them work in conjunction with WHO?

By the way, your 1906 typhoid story is as ridiculous as the links you provided. Yes, I did read them and the psuedomona bacteria was a bacteria that came from a hospital. Do you know how many deaths occur from hospital cause infections in America each year?

"In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of microorganisms, including bacteria, combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year."

"Go ahead, it's only a few bucks (which should tell you intended demographic for this product. Yes, liquor companies are that insidious.) Note the alcohol content of it and for the love of God, don't take a drink of it. Just take a whiff. Then, reconsider if I was making a joke of drinking six bottles a day of that back there or not."

Here is what AG supposes the articles say. There is no link provided nor news of this, but AG provides a link about a hospital born illness, but omits that is is a hospital born illness. Dirty and dishonest is that attempt.

Compare the stretching, contorting, and all out misrepresentation in AG's comment below. Lame.

"Many of the children in these centers have fevers and have had to be hospitalized. The symptoms are fever, headache, stomach pain, lethargy, diarrhea, nausea/ vomiting and when fatal, the diseased person suffers from gastrointestinal hemmorhaging and intestinal perforation as the disease attacks the tissues or peritonitis[massive infection] sets in leading to confusion, coma and death. As we speak, a psuedomona bacteria has caused panic in several Guatemalan cities as demonstrated in pics of 300 people a day rushing to clinics and hospitals with symptoms of that disease. Why is our U.S. media silent about these diseases and publishing b.s. like that posted above? "

That is so funny, "Why" Why do Central American media outlets not report on U.S. Hospital born infections?

""In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of microorganisms, including bacteria, combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year."

Most of AG's original comment on this thread regarding "many" children being sick with fever in detention centers is a lie. You tried to connect a story that has nothing to do with detention centers. Then he tried to backtrack when he was called out on it called out.

Anyone can put those articles through translation.google. Anyone who has trouble reading Spanish should.

These are the dishonest lengths that nativist bigotry will go to.

Why isn't Central America not reporting all of the measle cases here of the hospital caused infections that caused thousands to die?

There were six deaths in the article you cite regarding typhoid. HHS is monitoring and screening all children for diseases.

And no, I didn't get the AJ police on you.

Why weren't you bellyaching about this?

"billed on many anti-vaccination sites as a way of expressing one’s independence from authority, a sort of “You can’t tell me what to do with my child” thumbing at The Man.

That thumbing has consequences. The Lone Star state has just weathered a measles outbreak courtesy of a virus that traveled from Indonesia to a church full of unvaccinated, homeschooled children in North Texas. In that episode, at least 20 people were infected. The state is also now in the midst of what is predicted to be of its biggest pertussis outbreaks since the 1950s, which has slammed at least 2000 people and killed two infants. Authorities calculate that for every known case of pertussis, 10 more people are walking around with it, coughing on babies too young to be vaccinated or infecting others whose immunity–natural or acquired–has waned.

In response, public health experts are strongly recommending that everyone be up-to-date on their pertussis vaccines and boosters and that pregnant women–caregivers are the ones most likely to transmit infection to infants–also be sure to get their Tdap vaccine updated. Texas has a reported below-average uptake of pertussis vaccination at 94%."

@A-J--Why the news blackout when illegal aliens commit murders in Texas? This is another actual 'illegal immigration-related threat' to the well-being of Texans and all U.S. citizens. One of these illegal aliens has been deported 4 times before and thanks to Obama's refusal to uphold illegal immigration laws, a BP agent and father of 3 was murdered by these goons Sunday evening while fishing with his family in Willacy County, near the border. This agent's mother has more courage than the timid media in this city...she fired an AR-15 at the murderers and was able to disable their car so that they could not get away. Is it not politically correct to report on this crime? If so, why?